My gift to Jane Austen…

 Here in Australia it is already Jane Austen’s birthday… it is meet that she is celebrated through all the time zones of the world and that we give her the respect and affection she so rightly deserves. To Jane…


My dearest Jane,

I hope this letter finds you happy and well on your birthday and that Aunt Austen is recouped. I had occasion to speak with Mrs.Lefroy in the Tearooms in Bath and she informed me that Aunt is once again sitting downstairs and receiving and I confess to being vastly relieved.

I am sending you a gift which I hope you have opened from its wrapping by now. I did give instruction that it was intended you open the package first and the letter second, thus you must forgive me issuing orders on your special day.

As you can see I am giving you a journal and delicious paper for your writing. You are now a success, Cousin, and your writing deserves to be written on the best paper available.

I found this on my recent visit to Florence. It was in the most elegant shop, a place called, logically I thought, Il Papiro. The journal is beautifully marbled is it not? I chose the colours with you in mind, colours of the sky in East Hampshire on a fine summer’s day. So fascinating watching the marbling take place, my dear. It is like alchemy and the binders are magicians manipulating paper and leather. It is my belief that this journal will provide the pages for your greatest novel yet.

I cannot wait to see yourself and Cassandra to tell of a charming young woman I met in Florence. I quite literally bumped into her in the Boboli Gardens and nearly tipped her into a pond. You would have laughed as all the handsome young men dashed up to save her from a dunking. Her name was Emma, a pretty young thing on the arm of her father, and she seemed set on matchmaking everyone she met. There is so much more to tell and I know you both shall enjoy it. Indeed I have this strange feeling that as you read this, an idea may already have seeded itself in your clever mind.

The paper sheets are for you to write to people like me, your loving cousin, or to your publisher. Run your hand over the surface. Do you not agree it feels like the kind of silk we would use for our ballgowns?

I hope our chaise can deliver us safely to Chawton for dinner this evening and look forward to giving you birthday greetings in person.

I remain your loving cousin,

 Prudence

Will offer a free Kindle copy of Anna Elliott’s Georgiana Darcy’s Diary  http://amzn.to/usYnbc as a gift for this amazing celebration. Leave your email address in the comment section.

 LIST OF PARTICIPANTS IN THE JANE AUSTEN’S BIRTHDAY SOIREE

 Sharon Lathan

Blog: Sharon Lathan

Giveaway : Miss Darcy Falls in Love

Emily Snyder

Blog: O! Beauty Unattempted

Giveaway: Letters of Love & Deception

Laurel Ann Nattress

Blog:  Austenprose

Giveaway: signed copy of Jane Austen Made Me Do It

C. Allyn Pierson

Blog:   SemiTrue Stories

Giveaway: Mr Darcy Little Sister (open worldwide)

Cindy Jones

Blog: First Draft

Giveaway:  a signed copy of “My Jane Austen Summer” and a package of Lily Berry’s Pink Rose Tea by Bingley’s, Ltd.

Farida Mestek

Blog:  Regency stories set against the backdrop of Regency England
Giveaway: I was Jane Austen Best Friend by Cora Harrison

Marilyn Brant

Blog:    Brant Flakes

Giveaway : A canvas ACCORDING TO JANE tote bag and a pair of A SUMMER IN EUROPE luggage tags.

Prue Batten

Blog: Mesmered’s Blog

Giveaway : Anna Elliot’s  “Georgiana Darcy” (Kindle book)

Erin Blakemore

Blog:   The Heroine’s Bookshelf  

Giveaway :  a set of Potter-Style Pride and Prejudice notecards  

Blog: vvb32 reads

Giveaway: Jane Austen’s Little Instruction Book (Charming Petites) By

Jane Austen    Edited by Sophia Bedford-Pierce, Illustrated by Mullen &

Katz,  Introduction by  Barbara Paulding

Karen Doornebos

Blog: The Fiction vs. Reality Smackdown

Giveaway: 2 Jane Austen Candles and 2 signed DNMD books plus drink coasters and tea!

Regina Jeffers  ReginaJeffers’s Blog

Giveaway:  An autographed copy of “Christmas at Pemberley “

 Alyssa Goodnight

Blog: Alyssa Goodnight   

Giveaway: Jane Austen Action figure

Deb

Blog: Jane Austen in  Vermont

Giveaway:  JASNA 2012 calendars from the Wisconsin JASNA Region

Laura Hile,  Susan Kaye, Pamela Aidan, and Barbara Cornthwaite

Blog: Jane Started It! 

Giveaway:

  • One copy of Young Master Darcy: A Lesson in Honour by Pamela Aidan
  • One set of Frederick Wentworth, Captain (Books 1 and 2) by Susan Kaye
  • Two copies of Mercy’s Embrace: So Rough a Course (Book 1) by Laura Hile
  • George Kinghtley, Gentleman (Books 1 and 2) by Barbara Cornthwaite.
  • Giveaway:  a copy of “Persuade Me”  and one of “The Importance of Being Emma”

Juliet ArcherBlog:

Choc Lit Authors’ Corner

Jane Greensmith

Blog: Reading, Writing, Working , Playing

Giveaway: a copy of  “Intimations of Austen”, and Sense & Sensibility (Marvel Illustrated)

Jenny Allworthy

Blog : The Jane Austen Film Club 
Giveaway:  a copy of Northanger Abbey DVD starring Felicity Jones and JJ Feild (The winner will choose region 1 or 2 DVD)

Sitio Jane Austen

Blog: El Salón de Té de Jane

Giveaway:  – Spanish edition of Sense and Sensibility for the 200th Anniversary + A DVD package with adaptations of Jane Austen
(It’s only zone 2, but it’s in Spanish and English ) +  blu-ray of the BBC’s Emma with Romola Garai

Kaitlin Saunders

Blog : Kaitlin Saunders

Giveaway: “A Modern Day Persuasion”

Becky Rhodehouse

Blog: One Literature Nut

Giveaway: selection of Austenesque Reads

Patrice Sarath

Blog: Patrice Sarath

Giveaway: A copy of The Unexpected Miss Bennet

Adriana Zardini

Site: Jane Austen Brasil

Giveaway: DVD – Sense and Sensibility (1995) – English / Portuguese subtitles

Jane Odiwe

Blog: Jane Austen Sequels 

Giveaway:  a mug with one of  Jane Odiwe’s illustrations and a copy of her “Mr Darcy’s Secret”

Courtney Webb

Stiletto Storytime

Giveaway: Noble Satyr by Lucinda Brant (Regency Romance)

Jennifer Becton

Blog: Jennifer W. Becton

Giveaway: An ebook of the Personages of Pride and Prejudice Collection, which contains all of my Austenesque works: Charlotte Collins, “Maria Lucas,” and Caroline Bingley. The giveaway will be open internationally.

Vera Nazarian

Blog: Urban Girl Takes Vermont

Giveaway: a copy of Vera Nazarian’s gift hardcover edition of her inspirational calendar and diary, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

Abigail Reynolds

Blog: Pemberley Variations

Giveaway:   a signed copy of “Mr. Darcy’s Undoing”

Blog: AustenAuthors

Giveaway:  Georgette Heyer’s Regency World by Jennifer Kloester

Katherine Cox

November’s Autumn

Giveaway :$10 B&N Gift-card (US only)

Maria Grazia

My Jane Austen Book Club

Giveaway : A selection of Austenesque reads